The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1887-09-10
CANApA'S CAPITAL.
An American Clergy's Gossip About the
City of Ottawa.

City of Ottawa.
Ottawa was fixed on by the Queen as
the site of the capital of the now united
province of Canada. Quebec, Mon
treal, Kingston and Toronto put in
their claims, and the contest was pecu-
liarly keen between Upper and Lower
Canada, as the position of the capital
would involve Mt least the temporary
predominance of the English or French
element. The Queen, to whom the
question was referred as being too diff
ficult and delicate for provincial solu-
ton, preferred Ottawa, to the displeas-
ure of course of every one of the other
candidates, and to the general surprise
of Canada. Ottawa has but lately
emerged into notice from the OBJ
scure name of Bytown; it is the
smallest of all the competitors,
having only fifteen thousand inhabit.
ants, and is far removed from the great
thoroughfare and traffic in the valley of
the st. Lawrence The reasons that
seemed to have Influenced the Queens
counselors were these-all the other
candidates were decidedly either in
Upper or Lower Canada, but Ottawa is
on the boundary of both provinces,
the river Ottawa forming a marked di-
vision between the French and English
populations 1t was therefore COM
promise by an arbiter, where disput'
ants, if left to themselves, might have
pushed the case to a disruption. In
case of war, moreover, Ottawa is far
therest removed from the frontier Of
the United States, and is susceptible Of
being strongly fortified. Although in
part of the country that has not yet
been fully opened up, it has great ex-
tent of the very best land around it,
and needs only some stimulus to be-
come thriving and pOpulous center.
The city of Ottawa, like the country
of which it is capital, is to be judged
more by its future than its present.
There are many inhabitants in it older
than its first house, and l have con-
versed with a good old lady who lived
two months on the site of the Parlia-
ment House in a hut with barrel for
a chimney. All was then unbroken for
est, and she had to wait these two
months till q road could be cut to her
. husbands concession twenty miles Off
Even now the primitive pine groves
= and cedar thicketS can be seen close at
y hand, seals are seen disporting them.
, selves in the river, and a fox who com
mits nightly depredatiOns on the poul'
] try has his headquarters beneath the
Parliament House, and deiics dislodg
= ment. The towns already stretching GU
around, occupying at least three times
the space that would be allotted to tho
inhabitants of the old country. BroaC
rectangular lines of streets run far on
!. into the country, many of them marked
: by two or three houses, some by none
but all of them appearing duly com
~ pleted in the map. A good arrange
, ment this, SO far as light and air ar,
q concerned, when the sun is in the sky
n but rather inconvenient when nigh
. comes into the question, and rain o
@ thaw sets in. Lighting and pawn;
then are felt to be at sad discount, or
if attempted on comfortable scale, tn
# pockets of the taxpayers feel the bur
| den. 1t is doubtless this Circumstance
i that makes the local taxes in American
q towns Il more serious item than tn
= contributions to the general revenue
N Other things in Ottawa have com
10 menced on large scale. Til
I hotels are metropolitan in siz
N and appearance, and several dali
~ papers wage fierce warfare with eac
r. other. In regard, however, to thcs
ia matters, hotels and newspapers, Otta
N wa is not distinguished from Canadian
~ towns of the same size. A strange
vi can not understand how such larg
ly hotels can be supported in small towns
or with no great influx of visitors, an
n. yet they seem to get along and prosper
tb The system of boarding, instead {
81 living in their own houses, seems to
10 that which supports many of them, a
q though in Canada this does not preva
ID to any thing like the same extent as i
., the States. As to the daily papers nc
be much that is eulogistic can be sale
They are meagre in general news, an
q, pervaded by a bitter spirit of persona
~ attack, that is happily disappearin
~ from the Old Country.-Rev. John he
% d. d., in Interior.
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